Editing Consumerism (section)

==Criticism==
{{Anti-consumerism|Theories}}
{{Main|Anti-consumerism|Affluenza}}

[[File:la2-buynothing.jpg|thumb|[[Buy Nothing Day]] demonstration in San Francisco, November 2000]]
[[File:Shop Until You Drop by Banksy.JPG|thumb|right|''Shop Until You Drop'' by [[Banksy]], in London]]

Andreas Eisingerich discusses in his article "Vision statement: Behold the extreme consumers...and learn to embrace them" that "In many critical contexts, ''consumerism'' is used to describe the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially those with commercial brand-names and perceived [[Status symbol|status-symbolism]] appeal, e.g. a [[luxury car]], [[designer clothing]], or expensive jewelry".<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Eisingerich |first1=Andreas B. |last2=Bhardwaj |first2=Gunjan |last3=Miyamoto |first3=Yoshio |date=April 2010 |title=Behold the Extreme Consumers and Learn to Embrace Them |url=http://hbr.org/2010/04/vision-statement-behold-the-extreme-consumersand-learn-to-embrace-them/ar/1 |journal=Harvard Business Review |volume=88 |pages=30–31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abun |first1=Damianus |last2=Magallenes |first2=Theogenia |last3=Tabur |first3=Mirriam |date=September 2018 |title=Solving Environmental Problems is Changing Cultural Perception Toward Environment |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327881277 |journal=International Journal of Current Research |volume=10 |issue=8 |pages=73112–73116 |doi=10.24941/ijcr.32131.08.2018 |doi-broken-date=18 December 2024 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> A major criticism of consumerism is that it serves the interests of capitalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Muldoon |first=Annie |year=2006 |title=Where the Green Is: Examining the Paradox of Environmentally Conscious Consumption |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt00t326gx/qt00t326gx.pdf |journal=Electronic Green Journal |page=19 |via=UCLA}}</ref>

Consumerism can take extreme forms, to the extent that consumers will sacrifice significant time and income not only to make purchases, but also to actively support a certain firm or brand.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Eisingerich|first1= Andreas B.|last2= Bhardwaj|first2= Gunjan|last3= Miyamoto|first3= Yoshio|date= April 2010|title= Behold the Extreme Consumers and Learn to Embrace Them|journal= Harvard Business Review|volume= 88|pages= 30–31|url= http://hbr.org/2010/04/vision-statement-behold-the-extreme-consumersand-learn-to-embrace-them/ar/1}}</ref> As stated by Gary Cross in his book "All Consuming Century: Why Consumerism Won in Modern America", "consumerism succeeded where other ideologies failed because it concretely expressed the cardinal political ideals of the century – liberty and democracy – and with relatively little self-destructive behavior or personal humiliation." He discusses how consumerism won in its forms of expression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cross |first=Gary |title=An all-consuming century : why commercialism won in modern America |date=2000 |publisher=Columbia University Press }}</ref>

[[Tim Kasser]], in his book ''The High Price of Materialism'', examines how the culture of consumerism and materialism affects our happiness and well-being. The book argues that people who value wealth and possessions more than other things tend to have lower levels of satisfaction, self-esteem, and intimacy, and higher levels of anxiety, depression, and insecurity. The book also explores how materialistic values harm our relationships, our communities, and our environment, and suggests ways to reduce materialism and increase our quality of life.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kasser |first1=Tim |title=The high price of materialism |date=2002 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780262276764}}</ref>

Opponents of consumerism argue that many luxuries and unnecessary consumer-products may act as a social mechanism allowing people to identify like-minded individuals through the display of similar products, again utilizing aspects of status-symbolism to judge [[socioeconomic status]] and [[social stratification]]. Some people believe relationships with a product or brand name are substitutes for healthy human relationships lacking in societies, and along with consumerism, create a [[cultural hegemony]], and are part of a general process of social control<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEV20060406083003&eTitle=Focus&rLink=0/ |title= Fool Britannia |publisher= Newindpress.com |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080414235736/http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEV20060406083003&eTitle=Focus&rLink=0%2F |archive-date= 14 April 2008 |df= dmy-all }}</ref> in modern society.

In 1955, economist [[Victor Lebow]] stated:
{{cquote|Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.<ref>Lebow, Victor. http://hundredgoals.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/journal-of-retailing.pdf</ref>}}

Figures who arguably do not wholly buy into consumerism include German historian [[Oswald Spengler]] (1880–1936), who said: "Life in America is exclusively economic in structure and lacks depth",<ref name="ReferenceA">Stearns, Peter. ''Consumerism in World History''. Routledge</ref> and French writer [[Georges Duhamel (author)|Georges Duhamel]] (1884–1966), who held American materialism up as "a beacon of mediocrity that threatened to eclipse French civilization".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> [[Francis Fukuyama]] blames consumerism for [[morality|moral]] compromises.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Fukuyama
 | first1 = Francis
 | author-link1 = Francis Fukuyama
 | year = 1992
 | chapter = 15: A Vacation in Bulgaria
 | title = The End of History and the Last Man
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NdFpQwKfX2IC
 | publisher = Simon and Schuster
 | publication-date = 2006
 | page = 169
 | isbn = 9780743284554
 | quote = [...] what Havel identifies as 'the general unwillingness of consumption-oriented people to sacrifice some material certainties for the sake of their own spiritual and moral integrity' is a phenomenon that is hardly unique to communist societies. In the West, consumerism induces people to make moral compromises with themselves daily, and they lie to themselves [...] in the name of [...] ideas like 'self-realization' or 'personal growth.'
}}
</ref>

Moreover, some critics have expressed concern about the role commodities play in the definition of one's self. In his 1976 book [[iarchive:captainsofconsci00ewen|''Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture'']], historian and media theorist [[Stuart Ewen]] introduced what he referred to as the "commodification of consciousness", and coined the term "commodity self" to describe an identity built by the goods we consume.<ref name="Sturken 2001, p. 279">Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa. ''Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture''. Oxford UP, 2001, p. 279 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

For example, people often identify as PC or Mac users, or define themselves as a Coke drinker rather than a Pepsi drinker. The ability to choose one product out of a great number of others allows a person to build a sense of "unique" individuality, despite the prevalence of Mac users or the nearly identical tastes of Coke and Pepsi.<ref name="Sturken 2001, p. 279"/> By owning a product from a certain brand, one's ownership becomes a vehicle of presenting an identity that is associated with the attitude of the brand. The idea of individual choice is exploited by corporations that claim to sell "uniqueness" and the building blocks of an identity. The invention of the commodity self is a driving force of consumerist societies, preying upon the deep human need to build a sense of self.

===Environmental impact===
Critics of consumerism point out that consumerist societies are more prone to damage the environment, contribute to [[global warming]] and use resources at a higher rate than other societies.<ref>[http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/climate_change/co2.htm Global Climate Change and Energy CO<sub>2</sub> Production{{snd}}An International Perspective] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090228111224/http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/climate_change/co2.htm |date= 28 February 2009}}</ref> [[Jorge Majfud]] says that "Trying to reduce environmental pollution without reducing consumerism is like combatting drug trafficking without reducing the drug addiction."<ref>{{cite web|last= Majfud |first= Jorge |url= https://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/chronicle/home/archive/issues2009/toprotectsucceedinggenerations/pid/21570 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130719034751/https://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/chronicle/home/archive/issues2009/toprotectsucceedinggenerations/pid/21570 |url-status= dead |archive-date= 19 July 2013 |title= The Pandemic of Consumerism |publisher= UN Chronicle |year= 2009 |access-date= 6 October 2019}}</ref>

[[Pope Francis]] also critiques consumerism in his [[encyclical]] ''[[Laudato si'|Laudato Si': On Care For Our Common Home]]''.<ref>"Loss of Biodiversity". [[Laudato si']]: on Care for Our Common Home: Encyclical Letter, by Pope Francis, Our Sunday Visitor, 2015, p. 27.</ref> He critiques the harm consumerism does to the environment and states, "The analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work-related and urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in turn to how they relate to others and to the environment."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cssr.org.au/justice_matters/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=643 |title=Laudato Si' – Chapter One: What is happening to our common home |author=Pope Francis |date=18 June 2015 |website=Redemptorists |access-date=13 November 2018 |archive-date=18 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190318031311/https://www.cssr.org.au/justice_matters/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=643 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pope Francis believes the obsession with consumerism leads individuals further away from their humanity and obscures the interrelated nature between humans and the environment.

Another critic is [[James Gustave Speth]]. He argues that the [[growth imperative]] represents the main goal of capitalistic consumerism. In his book ''The Bridge at the Edge of the World'' he notes, "Basically, the economic system does not work when it comes to protecting environmental resources, and the political system does not work when it comes to correcting the economic system".

In an opinion segment of ''[[New Scientist]]'' magazine published in August 2009, reporter Andy Coghlan cited [[William E. Rees (academic)|William Rees]] of the [[University of British Columbia]] and [[Epidemiology|epidemiologist]] [[Warren Hern]] of the [[University of Colorado at Boulder]] saying that human beings, despite considering themselves civilized thinkers, are "subconsciously still driven by an impulse for survival, domination and expansion ... an impulse which now finds expression in the idea that inexorable economic growth is the answer to everything, and, given time, will redress all the world's existing inequalities."<ref name="Coghlan">{{cite web|last= Coghlan|first= Andy|title= Consumerism is 'eating the future' |url= https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-consumerism-is-eating-the-future.html |date=7 August 2009 |website=New Scientist |access-date= 12 December 2009}}</ref>

According to figures presented by Rees at the annual meeting of the [[Ecological Society of America]], human society is in a "global overshoot", consuming 30% more material than is sustainable from the world's resources. Rees went on to state that at present, 85 countries are exceeding their domestic "bio-capacities", and compensate for their lack of local material by depleting the stocks of other countries, which have a material surplus due to their lower consumption.<ref name="Coghlan"/> Not only that, but McCraken indicates that how consumer goods and services are bought, created and used should be taken under consideration when studying consumption.<ref>{{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Fp8WVG1S_QAC&q=consumerism&pg=PP10|title= Consumerism: As a Way of Life|last= Miles|first= Steven|date= 1998|publisher= Sage|isbn= 9780761952152|language= en}}</ref>

Not all anti-consumerists oppose [[consumption (economics)|consumption]] in itself, but they argue against increasing the consumption of resources beyond what is [[sustainability|environmentally sustainable]]. [[Jonathan Porritt]] writes that consumers are often unaware of the negative environmental impacts of producing many modern goods and services, and that the extensive advertising industry only serves to reinforce increasing consumption.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/consumerism.html
|title=Consumerism – Big Ideas
|access-date=20 April 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420040645/http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/consumerism.html
|archive-date=20 April 2010
|url-status=usurped
}}</ref>

Conservation scientists Lian Pin Koh and Tien Ming Lee, discuss that in the 21st century, the damage to forests and biodiversity cannot be dealt with only by the shift towards "Green" initiatives such as "sustainable production, [[Green consumption|green consumerism]], and improved production practices". They argue that consumption in developing and emerging countries needs to be less excessive.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koh |first1=Lian |last2=Lee |first2=Tien |date=2012 |title=Sensible consumerism for environmental sustainability |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320711003983 |journal=Biological Conservation |volume=151 |issue=1 |pages=3–6 |doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.029 |bibcode=2012BCons.151....3K |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> Likewise, other ecological economists such as [[Herman Daly]] and [[Tim Jackson (economist)|Tim Jackson]] recognize the inherent conflict between consumer-driven consumption and planet-wide ecological degradation.

American environmental historian and sociologist [[Jason W. Moore]], in his book ''[[Anthropocene]] or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism'' points out that the challenge of addressing both underconsumption and overconsumption of resources lies at the heart of the world’s primary sustainability dilemma. While significant portions of the global population struggle to meet basic needs, the resource-intensive lifestyles of affluent societies — characterized by car dependency, frequent air travel, high meat consumption, and an apparently limitless appetite for consumer goods like clothing and technological devices — are key drivers of the unsustainable practices.<ref>{{Cite book|url= https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-11069-6_2|title= Capitalism, Consumption, and the Transformation of Everyday Life: The Political Economy of Social Practices|last= Hansen|first= Arve|date= 2023|publisher= Springer Nature|isbn= 9783031110696|language= en|pages=27–54}}</ref>

===Consumerism as cultural ideology===
In the 21st century's globalized economy, consumerism has become a noticeable part of the culture.<ref>{{Cite journal | year=2012 | last1= James | first1= Paul | last2= Scerri | first2= Andy | author-link1= Paul James (academic) | title= Globalizing Consumption and the Deferral of a Politics of Consequence | url= https://www.academia.edu/3230921 | journal= Globalizations | volume= 9 | issue= 2 | pages= 225–240| doi= 10.1080/14747731.2012.658249 | bibcode= 2012Glob....9..225J | s2cid= 67761604 }}</ref> Critics of this phenomenon have not only raised concerns about its environmental sustainability, but also its cultural implications. However, a number of scholars have explored the relationship between environmentalism and consumerism within the context of a market economy society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Panizzut |first1=Nina |last2=Rafi-ul-Shan |first2=Piyya Muhammad |last3=Amar |first3=Hassan |last4=Sher |first4=Farooq |last5=Mazhar |first5=Muhammad Usman |last6=Klemeš |first6=Jiří Jaromír |title=Exploring relationship between environmentalism and consumerism in a market economy society: A structured systematic literature review |journal=Cleaner Engineering and Technology |date=2021 |volume=2 |page=100047 |doi=10.1016/j.clet.2021.100047 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2021CEngT...200047P }}</ref>

Discussions of the environmental implications of consumerist ideologies in works by economists James Gustave Speth<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bridgeatedgeofwo00spet|title=The bridge at the edge of the world : capitalism, the environment, and crossing from crisis to sustainability|last=Speth|first=James Gustave|date=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300136111|location=New Haven|oclc=177820867}}</ref> and [[Naomi Klein]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=This changes everything : capitalism vs. the climate|last=Klein|first=Naomi|isbn=9781451697384|edition= First Simon & Schuster trade paperback |location=New York|oclc=894746822|date =  2014}}</ref> and consumer cultural historian Gary Cross.<ref>{{Cite book|title=An all-consuming century : why commercialism won in modern America|last=Cross|first=Gary S.|date=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0231502532|location=New York|oclc=50817376}}</ref> Leslie Sklair proposes the criticism through the idea of culture-ideology of consumerism in his works. He says that,

{{quote|First, capitalism entered a qualitatively new globalizing phase in the 1950s. As the electronic revolution got underway, significant changes began to occur in the productivity of capitalist factories, systems of extraction, processing of raw materials, product design, marketing and distribution of goods and services. [...] Second, the technical and social relations that structured the mass media all over the world made it very easy for new consumerist lifestyles to become the dominant motif for these media, which became in time extraordinarily efficient vehicles for the broadcasting of the culture-ideology of consumerism globally.<ref>Sklair, L. 2012. Culture-Ideology of Consumerism. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization</ref>}}

Today, people are universally and continuously being exposed to mass consumerism and [[product placement]] in the media or even in their daily lives. The line between information, entertainment, and promotion of products has been blurred, thus explaining how people have become more reformulated into consumerist behaviours.<ref name="Leslie Sklair 2002">Leslie Sklair, from Chapter 5 of Globalization: Capitalism and Its Alternatives, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2002. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press</ref> Shopping centers are a representative example of a place where people are explicitly exposed to an environment that welcomes and encourages consumption. 

For example, in 1993, Goss wrote that the shopping center designers "strive to present an alternative rationale for the shopping center's existence, manipulate shoppers' behavior through the configuration of space, and consciously design a symbolic landscape that provokes associative moods and dispositions in the shopper".<ref>Jon Goss (1993), The "Magic of the Mall": An Analysis of Form, Function, and Meaning in the Contemporary Retail Built Environment, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 83, No. 1. (Mar. 1993), pp. 18–47</ref> On the prevalence of consumerism in daily life, historian Gary Cross says that "The endless variation of clothing, travel, and entertainment provided opportunity for practically everyone to find a personal niche, no matter their race, age, gender or class."<ref>Cross, Gary S. ''An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America''. Columbia University Press, 2002. p. 233 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Arguably, the success of the consumerist cultural ideology can be witnessed all around the world. People who rush to the mall to buy products and end up spending money with their [[credit cards]] can easily become entrenched in the financial system of [[capitalist]] globalization.<ref name="Leslie Sklair 2002"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmitt |first1=Bernd |last2=Brakus |first2=J Joško |last3=Biraglia |first3=Alessandro |title=Consumption Ideology |journal=[[Journal of Consumer Research]] |date=2021 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=74–95 |doi=10.1093/jcr/ucab044 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Alternatives===
{{See also|Ecoleasing|Ethical consumerism|Frugality|Green consumption}}
Since consumerism began, various individuals and groups have consciously sought an alternative lifestyle. These movements range on a spectrum from moderate "[[simple living]]",<ref>See for example: Janet Luhrs's ''The Simple Living Guide'' (NY: Broadway Books, 1997); Joe Dominquez, Vicki Robin et al., ''Your Money or Your Life'' (NY: Penguin Group USA, 2008)</ref> "[[Environmentally friendly|eco-conscious shopping]]",<ref>See for example: Alan Durning, ''How Much is Enough: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth'' (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992)</ref> and "[[Local food|localvore]]"/"[[Local purchasing|buying local]]",<ref>See for example: Paul Roberts, ''The End of Food'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008); Michael Shuman, ''The Small-mart Revolution'' (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007)</ref> to [[Freeganism]] on the extreme end. Building on these movements, the discipline of [[ecological economics]] addresses the macro-economic, social and ecological implications of a primarily consumer-driven economy.